Japan Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant blog
Tracking Fukushima news from day 1 : | Now one of the world's largest Public Available Repositories of the Chronology of the Daiichi Nuclear ongoing Disaster.
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Friday, 31 May 2013

No rise in cancer seen from Fukushima nuclear disaster: U.N.

The evacuation of tens of thousands of people helped prevent rising
cancer rates and other health problems after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear
disaster, the world’s worst in 25 years, U.N. scientists said on Friday.

[how has this done this]?

Radiation exposure following the reactor meltdowns more than two
years ago did not cause any immediate health effects, the United Nations
Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) said
after its annual meeting.

[immediate.. that's hardly scientific, particularly after the results from Chernobyl took many years]

That would be in contrast to Chernobyl, the 1986 Soviet reactor
explosion which sent radioactive dust across much of Europe and is
believed to have caused thyroid cancer in some children.

A magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, killed nearly
19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant,
spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000 people to flee their homes.

Actions to protect inhabitants in the area, including evacuation and
sheltering, significantly reduced the exposure to radioactive
substances, the scientific body said after the session to prepare a
report for the U.N. General Assembly.

[this is true enough, but hardly met with known bench marks, albeit the JP government considered evacuating Tokyo, based on the evidence but did not do so due to panic]

“These measures reduced the potential exposure by up to a factor of 10,” said senior UNSCEAR member Wolfgang Weiss.

[ again where is the concrete data?]

“If that had not been the case, we might have seen the cancer rates
rising and other health problems emerging over the next several
decades,” he said in a statement.

[not true, cancer is NOT an immediate after affect]

Weiss, who chairs work on UNSCEAR’s Fukushima report, told reporters
that dose levels were “so low that we don’t expect to see any increase
in cancer in the future in the population.”

[expect, another dubious and unscietific response]
UNSCEAR’s findings appeared to differ somewhat from a World Health
Organization (WHO) report published in February which said people in the
area worst affected have a slightly higher risk of developing certain
cancers.

Weiss suggested the UNSCEAR study, carried out by 80 experts and with
the involvement of five international organisations including the
United Nations health agency, was based on information covering a longer
period after the accident.

[They did this in secret? where is the analysis]

UNSCEAR’s 27 member states scrutinised the draft during this week’s
session in Vienna, it said, adding it would be the most comprehensive
scientific analysis of the issue so far.
While a few received very high doses, no radiation-related deaths or
acute effects were observed among nearly 25,000 workers - including
employees of the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co - involved at the
accident site, it said.

Highlighting the differences between Chernobyl and Fukushima, Weiss
said people close to the then Soviet plant were exposed to radioactive
iodine that contaminated milk.
The thyroid - a gland in the neck that produces hormones that
regulate vital body functions - is the most exposed organ as radioactive
iodine concentrates there. Children are deemed especially vulnerable.

[The milk was the culprit]
“In Chernobyl, many children used milk which had high iodine
concentrations, resulting in high thyroid doses, resulting in an
increase of thyroid cancer,” Weiss said, adding that the doses in Japan
were “much, much lower.”

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013.

[end snip]

Dubious reporting with no solid data.. dubious to say the least.

Here (albeit a little late), is the Wiki on the UN's reporting agency....

Understanding the movement of Fukushima-derived
radioactivity through marine ecosystems may come down to getting a
better handle on the tiniest of creatures—the microscopic plankton that
take up so much volume in the sea. But one species that has become
emblematic of the disaster is a shimmering giant: the Pacific bluefin
tuna.

Increasingly overfished, Pacific bluefins are among the most prized
table fish in the world. A single 500-pound specimen recently fetched
$1.76 million in a Tokyo auction. Beyond their allure as high-end sushi
material, however, they are amazing migratory animals. Spawned in the
waters off Japan and the Philippines, these fish as juveniles swim the
entire 6,000-mile breadth of the Pacific—a four-month journey—to fatten
up in food-rich waters off California. Years later, larger and sexually
mature adults undertake a return crossing to spawn.

As respective experts on radioisotope uptake in marine life and tuna
migration patterns, Nicholas Fisher of Stony Brook University and Daniel
Madigan of Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station knew that young bluefins
caught off California during the summer of 2011 likely would have spent
their early days in contaminated waters off Fukushima. Would these fish
act as “biological vectors” transporting radioisotopes between distant
shores?

TEPCO
has announced the completion of the frame for the unit 4 defueling
building. The handout shows at least some of the outer steel skin is
also installed. TEPCO also made the unusual statement that they would
begin removing fuel next month.

It
was the first time since the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear
disaster that farmers have gone inside the former 20-kilometer “no-go”
zone around the doomed plant to sow rice intended for sale.

The zone has been redefined to let people access areas where the levels of radiation from the plant have been relatively low. [WTF DOES RELATIVELY LOW MEAN?]

Tens of thousands of people remain unable to return to their homes.[AND YET THEY PLANT RICE TO SELL?]

The
rice paddies are located in Miyakoji district where a few dozen farmers
used to live before they were evacuated after the devastating quake and
tsunami left the plant spewing radiation from its molten reactors.[THAT'S REASSURING LANGUAGE]

All rice from the paddies will be checked for radioactive contamination before being shipped, said Onami. [SURE THEY WILL] *wink........

[snip]TOKYO (AP) — A United Nations expert who investigated the aftermath of Japan's 2011 nuclear power plant disaster says the government and the operator of the facility should do more to help those affected by the catastrophe.

A report by special rapporteur Anand Grover, posted on the U.N. Human Rights Council's website, says the government's takeover of Tokyo Electric Power Co. allowed the utility to evade full responsibility for the nuclear disaster, the worst since Chernobyl.

The report points to problems with the handling of the crisis, including a difficult process for seeking compensation for radiation exposure, a lack of openness about health risks from radiation and inadequate protection for nuclear plant workers.

It urges Japan to improve its emergency preparedness and its handling of compensation claims.

Although TEPCO, the main power provider for the Tokyo region, was legally responsible for any liabilities from its nuclear operations, the government took over its management in the wake of the crisis.

That acquisition of a majority stake in the company "has arguably helped TEPCO to effectively avoid accountability and liability for damages," forcing financial responsibility onto taxpayers, the U.N. report said.

[b]"As the contaminated waste is stored in residential areas and under playgrounds, thereby posing a health hazard to residents, establishing temporary storage facilities away from residential areas is urgently required," the report says.[/b]

Saturday, 25 May 2013

The government
avoided setting stringent radiation reference levels for the return of
Fukushima evacuees for fear of triggering a population
drain and being hit by ballooning costs for compensation, an Asahi
Shimbun investigation shows.

The revelation
could rekindle debate over the government’s safety standards as many
evacuees prepare for their eventual return. They were
displaced by the nuclear disaster more than two years ago.

In December
2011, the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan decided to
lift the evacuation order for areas with residual doses of up
to 20 millisieverts per year.

The government
was regrouping areas in Fukushima Prefecture to pave the way for the
return of some evacuees based on radiation doses as of
November that year.

But minutes of
ministerial meetings and accounts by meeting participants show that
government officials initially sought a 5-millisievert
cutoff line to ensure evacuees’ safety.

The number was
later eased to 20 millisieverts as some Cabinet members insisted on
responding to local officials’ concern that the tougher
yardstick could spur population flight.

They also factored in the
possibility that costs of compensation for evacuees could significantly
rise if they were unable to return home in the
contaminated areas for a prolonged period....

Five years after the 1986 Chernobyl accident, a dose of 5 millisieverts was used as criteria for relocating residents for safety
reasons.

In Japan, a site measuring more than 5.2 millisieverts per year is designated as a radiation controlled area.There has been a
case of a Japanese worker who developed leukemia after having an
equivalent dose of radiation while working at a nuclear
power plant being recognized as patient of work-related illness....

One of the
participants acknowledged that the 20-millisievert proposal was lax,
while the 1-millisievert idea would result in the pullout of
all the residents in the prefecture.

<end snip>

Read the numbers above very carefully....

5.2 mSv was a dose that was recorded for the onset of lukeamia.

They want 20 for re-establishment

If the limit was lowered to previous safety levels, they would have to evacuate the entirety of Fukushima Prefecture, and would be inundated with compensation claims...

So again, it is cost and logistics vs the health and safety of the people...

Age dependence of radiation cancer death. Children and young people is a prosperous of cell division are susceptible to radiation. (please check the table, which is Dr. J. W. Fofman's Date.)

Chromosomal damage such as inversion and translocation caused by
radiation brings leukemia and cancer deaths, teratogenicity, a variety
of symptoms. In Fukushima
Prefecture, Japan, thyroid disorder is discovered from children dozens
already. Incidence of thyroid disorders in total number of children is
high enough to not be considered in the normal.

However, local
governments and hospitals affected by the central government tells
residents of Fukushima Prefecture that "health damage is not confirmed.
Causal relationship to radiation has not been confirmed".

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Fresh water fish in Japan, study reveals how quickly the radiation spread[snip]A new study offers fresh insights into how radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear disaster may have spread through Japan’s interconnected waterways, reaching some freshwater fish hundreds of kilometers away.How Fukushima Contamination May Have Spread via WaterwaysAt Tepco, A Woman Takes the Levers of PowerFukushima Watch: Dead Rodents Cause Another Cooling System Halt at Stricken PlantMegaquake Hitting Central Japan Could Kill 323,000Photos: Two Years Later, Slow Progress on CleanupThe research by two Japanese academics published in “Nature” magazine late last month reports traces of cesium found in 2011 “even in Shizuoka prefecture, 400 km south-west from the plant.”Although the data had been available the year of the accident from the Japanese government’s fisheries agency, this is the first time the data has been compiled and analyzed to try and assess exactly how — and how far — the damage had spread....Research for the article was conducted at The Center for Risk Research at Shiga University in western Japan.As part of their research, the authors focused in particular on contamination of freshwater fish throughout Japan — as opposed to contamination in saltwater fish considered to have had the greatest exposure, due to the large dumping of radioactive water into the waters off the shore of the stricken plant in the weeks after the accident.The Nature article, based on data collected in 2011, notes that radioactive cesium in freshwater fish in several locations, particularly near Fukushima, were well above the official government levels considered safe for consumption. While fish near Fukushima still exceed the safety levels, recent tests have shown little contamination in freshwater sources outside the immediate area.So far government officials have been slow in reacting to the fish-as-monitor idea however, he said.[end snip]http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/05/13/how-fukushima-contamination-may-have-spread-via-waterways/

“So, the mountains may appear pretty, but even these locations are contaminated by radiation as well — and I thought that approach was more me.”

It is this juxtaposition — the radioactive elephant in the beautiful room of nature, as it were — that invests his otherwise picturesque and seasonal shots of lush forests, valleys and foliage with a haunting, invisible presence.

As if to prove Imai’s point, the trail to our lookout point on Mount Higakure from the Sakashita Dam — which was a popular fishing spot for carp and smelt before the reactor meltdowns — offered stunning panoramic views of Fukushima’s Abukuma mountain range and the Pacific coastline. Yet, though radiation will force residents to regard the landscape quite differently for an untold time to come, at first glance it’s as if contamination has yet to taint the cyclical nature of Mother Earth in these parts.

But then that reality intrudes. Returning to the base of the mountain overlooking the manmade lake behind the dam, we find a public radiation-monitoring post indicating a reading of 0.44μSv/hour — roughly 40 times the level in Tokyo on the same day.

Moving on from there, before heading back to Tokyo we decide to drop by the abandoned tsunami-ravaged town of Tomioka, which had been off-limits until just recently. There, a mere 10 km from the nuclear plant, we were chastened to find the radiation readings were almost 10 times those by the dam — some 400 times Tokyo levels at the same time on the same day.

Meanwhile, though casual visitors in such irradiated parts may see evidence of the government’s decontamination efforts and think effective programs are being carried out, it doesn’t take an expert to realize other new problems are kicking in....

For instance, though dozens of cleanup workers were filling plastic bags with contaminated mud and leaves from hillsides and roads in deserted areas of Futaba close to Tepco’s plant, it was deeply disturbing to see huge mounds of those bags filled with radioactive waste dotting the landscape with nowhere to go......

A member of the Australian Nuclear Forum, Terry Krieg, presents the other side to the nuclear waste argument. He believes there are great opportunities—economic and environmental—for Australia if we were to become world leaders in the removal and safe burial of nuclear waste.

Now, how is the waste handled? Since the beginning in the late ‘50s on exit from the reactor the spent fuel rods (the waste) are suspended in cooling ponds under several metres of water. I inspected such ponds in 1981 while visiting the Pickering nuclear power station in Toronto, Canada. The fuel assemblies remain in the ponds for three years by which time their radiation levels have reduced to about 1 per cent of the level on exit from the reactor. They are then placed in above-ground cool air storage where they remain for about 30 years, by which time they are suitable for deep burial in a suitable site.

Current storage is achieved safely on site where the power is generated, unlike waste from coal power with millions of tonnes of solids which have to be dumped and the millions of tonnes of CO2 which are dumped mostly in the atmosphere. Since the early 1960s high-level nuclear materials have been moved through cities, across the countryside and over oceans with never an accident which leaked nuclear materials into the environment.

[snip]

National May. 14, 2013 - 07:00AM JST ( 18 )

TOKYO —

Officials from Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on Monday met with a Fukushima fisheries cooperative to seek its members’ permission to dump groundwater from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean.

The contaminated water storage has been a problem since early in the accident. TEPCO officials acknowledged last month that a lack of storage space has become a “crisis.” TEPCO has promised to speed up building more reliable steel tanks and eventually empty the underground tanks.

[end snip]

So, in violation of every Global nuclear treaty they want permission to spill it (not that it hasn't already been ongoing), into the Global oceans, due to storage issues......

We have proof from day one that we were being lied to. I myself have TWO BOOKS filled with the early daily TEPCO & IAEA reports, including the test sample reports and other research. The lies we were being fed even from the beginning has ALWAYS been nothing less than an insulting blow to my intelligence, and, rights as a human being on this planet.
I would like these perpetrators and enablers of deceit in Fukushima, in the IAEA, and, in EVERY nuclear research facility or regulatory agency for the past 80 years to know that the destruction of this planet and it's inhabitants is in their hands. The irony is the very fact that they do not view their folly and deceit as anything more than the 'way things work.' Between the nuclear industry and chemical companies like Dow and Monsanto, the day is coming that the Earth will be largely populated by genetically and physically flawed humans of questionable health and intelligence who will have lowered ability to keep humanity intact.
I'd like to know when truth will surface. Fish and other sea food is no longer safe, many produce and food products from the West Coast of North America have been affected. I am sad to be afraid to be outside when it rains...which was one of my lifelong pleasures. Our planet is being bombarded by an irreversible assault in Japan, but, THAT is the one they COULD NOT HIDE.
It is time for the blanket end of Nuclear Power plants worldwide. Just because this industries lobbyists and crafty 'scientists' mange to skew data, bury incidents, and, perpetuate lies to convince the world their industry is safe, does not make it safe. Which plant will be next? The age and structural integrity of existing plants are already reasons for grave concerns, but, as the incidents --yes, more than one-- in Japan show, the nuclear power industry always manages to do and say what it wants. One look at the pictures of those 'happy Japanese farmers'' 'proudly' holding up their grossly enlarged produce with a smiling face IS PROOF that they are/have been from the start trying to condition the world to believe that Fukushima is safe. The hopes and futures of people worldwide has been compromised, while we must live with the fact that we continue to be lied to. Those in power have lost all credibility. Civilization is broken, trust is lost, and it's only a matter of time until the silent sins of this industry is the visible face of mankind. I am beyond sad, and mourn for us all.[end snip]Enough said really

Friday, 10 May 2013

You no doubt observed the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, with terror and worry: what would another nuclear disaster mean for state relations, especially in your home region of East Asia? Fortunately, it seemed, the effects were largely kept to Japan’s islands and were less than many experts anticipated. Within weeks the stories dissipated if not disappeared from the major media outlets, only to be resurrected with personal interest stories of a hero or an especially tragic case of a lost loved one.

But the crisis is not over. Today, Martin Fackler reported in the New York Times that radioactively polluted water is leaking out of the plants and that the site is in a new state of emergency. Mitsuhei Murata, Japan’s former ambassador to Switzerland, wrote a letter last year that brought international attention to the thousands of radioactive spent fuel rods at the site and the danger their vulnerability presents; he has testified to this several times before Japan’s parliament. International experts, independent and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, have commented that the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s plans for the removal of the rods from the site and their storage in a safer, if still temporary, location are optimistic if not unrealistic.
The news media has done an adequate if meager job of reporting the many issues the fuel rods present. The radioactive fuel must be continuously cooled in order to stay safe; the improvised electric system that maintains this cooling has failed several times, once for more than 24 hours, both on its own and because of hungry rats. The mechanism that stands between safety and a fire at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is, to say the least, precarious. (And, as has been clear to many since the beginning, TEPCO hope to shirk its responsibility: first, in its safety and maintenance of the site; second, in paying its costs to Japan.)

One can only speculate to the extent of the consequences of a spent fuel fire, but, unarguably, once a fire ignites (from lack of cooling water or from an earthquake-caused spill), even the best case scenario would be an unprecedented global disaster. Possible consequences are the evacuation of Tokyo’s 35 million people, permanent disuse of Japan’s land, and poisoned food crops in the United States. These are not fantastic projections, but reasonable, if not conservative, expectations.

Yet, unimaginably but all too familiarly, the situation is still relegated to the back pages of our papers, and thus to the back of our leaders’ minds. This reminds me of our international approach to solving climate change, which I have partaken in for decades, first in the United Nations and then as the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro: we have a latent but very serious issue that we can likely fix but lack the resolve and political will to do so. As you well know, a successful climate change agreement has eluded us.

In comparison with climate change, however, the radioactive fuel rod issue at Fukushima is both easier to solve and more urgent. Any Japanese can tell you another serious earthquake will hit Japan well inside the next decade. That is to say, this situation must be resolved quickly.

Still, even if possible to solve, the issue needs constant attention and competent and well funded actors. So who might take charge? The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that it will take TEPCO 40 years to secure the radioactive fuel rods in more appropriate storage containers. TEPCO is already refusing to pay Japan billions of Yen in cleanup costs, and does not have the technology or wherewithal to perform the task competently and expediently. Yet, so far the Japanese government has only looked to TEPCO.
The next obvious choice outside Japan is the United States, for their technological superiority, money, and leadership. Early after the accident, the U.S. Department of Defense offered assistance to Japan, but the Japanese denied their help. It remains to be seen whether that door has permanently closed. This would not be a benevolent action: the U.S. sits in harm’s way in the case of a fuel pool fire; residents of California, Oregon, and Washington have already received much radiation. U.S.-led action, except perhaps by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, is unlikely: U.S. senators and representatives continues to demonstrate their impotence at home or abroad.

I have long been advocating for an international team of independent experts to investigate the situation. The United Nations is one appropriate body to assemble and deliver such a team. The IAEA, however, should not take on the responsibility.

The IAEA’s mission is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Concerns of proliferation are not applicable here, and the disaster itself has certainly called into question (again) what the peaceful use of nuclear energy means and whether it should be promoted. While the agency has recently urged safety improvements at Fukushima, the official line of thinking is still, incorrectly and impossibly, to use TEPCO to carry out the process.

We are not only waiting for a bigger disaster. One is already unfolding before us. The health consequences of the released radiation are large: despite what major news outlets are reporting, we will see a significant jump in thyroid and other cancers in Japan in four to five years. Congenital malformations will likely begin to appear. The premature reporting of some UN agencies and the press at large has been irresponsible: do we have no notion of what “precaution” means? These latent effects will cripple much of Japan’s young population within the decade.

Our myopia, in Japan and internationally, is tragic. One bright spot was the UN Special Rapporteur Anand Grover’s fact-finding mission in Japan last year; I hope you back his findings and circulate them widely.
We have already waited too long, as we did for climate change, to take international action on Fukushima. But now it is clear that we cannot allow Japan to take care of an issue that could affect all of us.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, I urge you to use your unique position as the head of the United Nations to galvanize political will and organize an independent assessment team of international scientists and engineers to solve the Fukushima radioactive spent fuel rod issue before we are forced to reckon with the fallout of another disaster. Japan and the world should not have to suffer more because we choose to wait.

Yours truly,
Akio Matsumura

-Former Special Advisor to the United Nations Development Program
-Founder and Secretary General of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders for Human Survival
-Secretary General of the 1992 Parliamentary Earth Summit Conference in Rio de Janeiro

Thursday, 9 May 2013

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory. If we were to be involved in an accident or wer...e taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call.

Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign. The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations.

As mobile phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents there were always mobile phones with patients but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE'. Please forward this. It won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this.

It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest. For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc

PASS THIS AROUND AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE AS THIS CAN HELP IN AN EMERGENCY

On 5/7/2013, Tepco announced the atmospheric dose in Fukushima nuclear plant area is significantly raised by the retained contaminated water.The highest increasing dose is estimated to be 6.4mSv/y. However, this is the reading on the border of the plant area. It would be higher inside of the plant area.Thanks as always to Mochizuki of Fukushima Diary for his tireless translating :)

[snip]

TEPCO: Fukushima radiation levels could exceed limits

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operators of the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, have revealed that radiation limits with the plants area and boundaries could exceed their self-imposed “safe” limit in the next few days. This is due to the power utility deciding to dump radioactive waste water from leaking underground tanks to storage facilities above-ground. The radiation level increase is directly connected to the transfer of water from underground to above-ground storage tanks...

...TEPCO had previously set a target to keep the site radiation levels at below 1 millisievert per year, but it has announced that levels – especially in the southern area of the plant – could at one point increase to 7.8 millisieverts, company officials revealed. As TEPCO has decided to transfer some 23,000 tons of polluted waterfrom leaking underground tanks to more reliable containers above ground, this will cause an increase in the radioactive level in the nuclear power plant compound.

[end snip]

How sad

no melt throughs

no ground water contamination (which they now are allowing themselves to pump into the oceans to save face)

promise not to allow irradiation to hit the ocean

lies about Plutonium releases, therefor a denial of core/ water pool breaches

radiation to rise regardless of the filtration (because they are moving highly radioactive components to temporary storage)

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Well, a worker in a US plant has an ANNUAL limit of 50 mSv, before they can't work there anymore, that is with the plant and all safety features functioning, and is accumulated as you can't stop all radiation....

This 'rubble' on the roof is only a small portion of the entire site, and is out in the open and is 10x, per hour, the annual highest limit for a Nuclear worker....

Also, they moved the waste to a 'temporary' storage building, wonder how much shielding it has?

The kicker:"to a building on the south side of the Fukushima Daiichi complex for temporary storage, until it can be transferred to a solid waste storage site in the future."

On 5/7/2013, Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters of Cabinet office announced they are going to lift the hazard area in Futaba machi Fukushima as of 5/28/2013.

There will be no hazard area in Fukushima.

The town will be in “Evacuation order lifting preparation area” and ”Hard to return area”. The annual doses are less than 20mSv/y and over 50mSv/y. As to “Evacuation order lifting preparation area”, the regulation will be lifted after decontamination....

...The former town mayor, Idogawa was opposing to accept the interim storage facility before resigning.

He commented, “Like in Auschwitz camp, our DNA is massacred in Fukushima prefecture just like guinea pigs ”...

Currently, storage tanks cover 42 acres of the facility, and TEPCO is planning to mow down a nearby forest to build more. Right now, the company is storing more than 280,000 tons of water—enough to fill 112 Olympic-sized swimming pools—but that figure increases daily, and will for several more years, until workers are able to repair the reactor buildings. TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono recently admitted that the problem is overwhelming:

“TEPCO is clearly just hanging on day by day, with no time to think about tomorrow, much less next year.”

Meanwhile, a team of 19 inspectors from the NRA met for the first time to study the root causes behind the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, including whether or not the massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused damage to the reactors there. Such a discovery would have an immense impact on the nuclear industry across Japan, a country that is riddled with seismic faults.

Japan’s Environment Ministry will begin test drilling in nine locations in Naraha, Okuma, and Futaba next week, in an effort to determine the best location for temporary storage sites for over 28 million cubic centimeters of radioactive waste